If Watson’s massive win over the human race in Jeopardy! was a little too close to the robo-pocalypse for you, here’s a decidedly less confrontational artificial intelligence. Japan is considering sending a humanoid robot companion up to the International Space Station that would not only talk with the astronauts, but also to people on Earth using Twitter. According to an article on Space.com, the robot would have facial expressions that mimic a human being and serve as both a companion to the astronauts and a monitor for the space station. An engineer from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said this artificial being would be “very human-like” and would monitor stress levels and other health indicators. Unlike other Twitter bots, this one might actually be worth following as it will also be responsible for taking photos and tweeting them back down to Earth.

NASA’s humanoid Robonaut 2 is already slated to join the ISS crew on Thursday with the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, according to the robot’s Twitter account. NASA’s android is designed to help astronauts with things like cleaning, not to provide companionship and comfort like the one planned by JAXA. Similar to the Japanese robot, Robonaut 2 will be using Twitter from Earth’s orbit.

Japan is known for leading the way in humanoid robotics, so it should be interesting to see what the country’s space agency cooks up for the ISS astronauts. Hopefully something with a little less alarming facial expressions than this one.